We're still in the Enlightenment, only now reason has shown us that we are not reasonable - and a more empirical study of man helps us remember the point of the whole program

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tech Incubator Eviction from San Francisco's Pier 38

Some San Francisco startups are losing their space because the Port of San Francisco is throwing them out. I have nothing to add to the story, and the quite-possibly-biasd narrative in Xconomy has holes in it you could drive a truck through. But it's worth comparing this story to another loss to the Bay Area, which was the eviction of the Pound, the awesomest metal venue that ever was, from another Port of SF structure. I post this only because I wonder how many people who frequented the Pound are also readers of Xconomy (actually, in San Francisco, probably more than you or I would guess). And the story was very much the same: the port throwing out a well-loved and characterful business from a space it had been renting.

This seems to be a pattern. The Port of San Francisco seems unusually heavy-handed and unfriendly to businesses that have productively repurposed their facilities, and voters (and the mayor's office) should be attention to this.